It is time for UK investors to invest in India: Gadkari

Nitin Gadkari is on a three-day visit to the UK this week, said he has been inspired by London's double-decker buses and wants to replicate the model for electric vehicles in India.PTI | May 13, 2017, 12:04 IST

London: Union minister Nitin Gadkari said today the time was right for foreign investors to invest in India's infrastructure sector as the investment-friendly government is targeting a double digit growth.

Nitin Gadkari is on a three-day visit to the UK this week, said he has been inspired by London's double-decker buses and wants to replicate the model for electric vehicles in India.

"This is the right time for investors from the UK to invest in India. Our target is for double digit growth and our government is very friendly for investment," Gadkari said at the UK-India Conclave on the theme of 'A Global Partnership: A new era in UK-India relations' here.

"I had meetings with Transport for London (TfL) today and we will be signing an MoU to collaborate on sustainable transport projects. I am very inspired by London's double- decker buses and my dream is to have electric double-decker buses on Indian roads," he said.

The minister for road transport, highways and shipping also highlighted that the UK's JCB had hiked construction in India by nearly 70 per cent and called on more foreign companies to invest in India's infrastructure sector.

"We have no stalled projects today. The road sector in India is moving very fast. By the end of this year, there will be revolutionary change in India with our focus on electric and cutting pollution. My dream is to transform our transport sector with an integrated approach," he said.

Indian High Commissioner to the UK Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha said the range of high-level ministerial visits between India and the UK in the last few months highlighted the importance of the bilateral ties.

"There are lots of complementarities between India and the UK and the UK should be right up there as India's trading partner in this post-Brexit era," Sinha said.

"The conclave seeks to explore what a modern India- UK partnership could mean. The UK and India can and must forge a partnership that looks beyond their respective borders," said Manoj Ladwa, CEO of India Inc - the organisers of the annual conclave.

"We must, now more than ever before, seek out opportunities for trade and investment, for jointly developing cutting-edge technologies and know-how, and establishing common approaches to some of the world's most complex problems such as climate change, terrorism, and poverty," Ladwa said.